Chicago Tribune

New buyer emerges for Chicago Public Schools HQ

Chicago Public Schools’ headquarters will live on as an office building, after a previous deal to sell the 20-story Loop tower to an apartment developer fell through.A venture of Chicago-based Blue Star Properties Inc. has a contract to buy the 507,920-square-foot tower at 125 S. Clark St., which it plans to redevelop as loft office space after CPS moves out later this year, Blue Star founder Craig Golden confirmed.Mr. Golden declined to disclose a price, but It is believed to be well below the approximately $35 million the school district was set to fetch in a sale to Marc Realty Residential LLC before that deal fell apart, according to sources. David Ruttenberg, a principal at MRR, a joint venture of Chicago-based Marc Realty and Chicago Apartment Finders, declined to comment. Rather than converting the 1907 building, designed by Daniel Burnham’s architecture firm, Blue Star intends to spruce it up and keep it as offices for tech startups and creative firms, Mr. Golden said.